Interview: Michael Huerta

Over the course of nearly eight years at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, serving first as Deputy Administrator before moving on to become Acting Administrator in 2011 and Administrator in 2013, Michael Huerta oversaw a crucial period in the integration of small drones into U.S. skies. For Huerta, who likes …

Portfolio: Dronescapes by Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox is an Australian painter whose work explores moral and ethical questions regarding the use of drones for military operations. Working under the massive Western Queensland skies, her paintings reflect an anxiety over the future and meaning of surveillance and attack drones. Her work often depicts the unmistakable stark …

Interview: On Drones and Insurance

As regulators open the skies to commercial drone use, insurance companies are starting to take notice. The demand for insurance policies that cover drone operations is expanding significantly. Commercial entities that fly drones want their new aerial assets to be protected, and they also want to be sure that they …

Interview: Thomas Finsterbusch

Thomas Finsterbusch wants to provide customers with all of the benefits of drones minus the hassle of actually flying them. Finsterbusch is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Cape Productions, Inc., which provides action sports with drone video filming and editing services. After raising over $10 million in venture …

Interview: Lisa Ellman

A version of this interview is available at Drone360.  Lisa Ellman understands the challenges of regulating domestic drones. Between 2009 and 2014, Ellman served in a variety of high-level positions within at the White House and at the Department of Justice, where she worked on policy initiatives on issues spanning from open …

On Pixels and Moral Injury: A Conversation with the Makers of ‘Good Kill’

By Alex Pasternack (@pasternack) A version of this story first appeared on Motherboard – VICE Ethan Hawke has this specific fear about the future. “I’ve often thought about this,” he says, leaning in. “Soon, there will be a movie starring Steve McQueen, soon computers will generate a new Steve McQueen—or …

Imagining Our Drone-Filled Future Cities

Anab Jain is the cofounder of Superflux Lab, a design practice based in Ahmedabad and London. Its projects examine the ways emerging technologies integrate with our environment and everyday life, exploring these implications in a multidisciplinary fashion. By combining art, research, and development, Jain is creating new ways by which …

Interview: Michael Toscano

Michael Toscano, known to most people in the drone industry simply as “Mike,” is the outgoing President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the world’s largest trade association for unmanned systems. Founded in 1972, AUVSI represents 600 companies from over 60 countries. Toscano, who …

The Art of Drone Painting

A conversation with Addie Wagenknecht In 2007, Addie Wagenknecht had the idea of using drones as a paintbrush. The resulting works—which manage to be both abstract and orderly, playful and sinister—hold a firm place in the drone art canon. If artists ever begin to replace their studio assistants with quadcopters, …